In 2002, then-University of Toledo President Daniel Johnson directed me and others to develop a white paper on coordinating UT’s interests and assets related to the Great Lakes, with a special focus on Lake Erie.

The strategies that were laid out in the white paper built on strengths at the university, and had broad support from the faculty.

As the director of the university’s Environmental and Plant Sciences Research Centers, I asked faculty to draft major portions of the document, to ensure technical accuracy.

This document testified to the extraordinarily robust character of a university whose members acted out of a sense of community.

The issues addressed in the report remain of vital interest and concern today.

Had the university’s faculty members been allowed to form a consortium that focused on the identified concerns about the Great Lakes, most notably Lake Erie, they would be presenting today more than a decade of relevant, concentrated research activity.

I will leave it to others to surmise what the condition of our water supply would be today — and the condition of the Lake Erie watershed in general — if that report had materialized into a defined, proactive international collaboration with UT at its center.

Within weeks of Toledo’s water crisis, millions of dollars have been found to pay the polluters of our waters not to pollute (“U.S. offers $2M in grants to stem growth of algae; Winter crops urged for farms,” Aug. 20).

It’s a shame that Fremont-area residents have to pay millions toward a reservoir built to address water issues caused by the same type of pollutants — fertilizer and manure runoff — into the Sandusky River, and ultimately Lake Erie.

It’s just not right.

GENE KOSCHINSKI

Buckland Avenue

Lawn chemicals should be shelved

To curb the growth of toxic algae in Lake Erie, the spraying of lawns with pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides should be banned.

People should stop applying fertilizers.

If you want a beautiful lawn, let nature take care of it. If you can’t stand a few weeds, bend down and pull them out.

Lawn chemical companies should consider marketing an environmentally friendly product to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.